1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a one-piece, seamless knitted garment and, more specifically, to such a garment which has a portion which is formed to conform to the body of the wearer by a method of making the same during reciprocal knitting.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Although a large number of one-piece panty hose presently produced are of a type which is formed by sewing two separately knitted halves together, it has long been recognized as desirable to be capable of providing a panty hose which is knitted in one-piece and seamless. A seam detracts from the appearance of the garment and requires an additional manufacturing step which tends to increase its cost.
In an effort to eliminate the seam, some panty hose, such as those of U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,673,821; 3,748,870; 3,802,229; and Re 27,886 have been provided. Although the prior art panty hose of U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,673,821 and Re 27,886 have eliminated the seam which is a characteristic of the sewn hose, they have not been found to possess the overall shape and size characteristics heretofore provided by the sewn garments which are also desired by the wearer. By using partial courses or heel pouches some contour is provided to the body of these prior art panty hose. However, the resulting terminated yarn ends or weakened gore lines tend to detract from the overall appearance of the garment and to thereby reintroduce one of the undesired features of the sewn garment which the seamless, one-piece hose was expected to eliminate. The same observation can be made for the panty hose of U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,748,870 and 3,802,229 in which gussets are formed by a widening and narrowing process which leaves obvious gore lines even though the shape is improved.
Another area of concern has been with the waist opening and the waistband of the panty hose garments. If the waistband is sewn to the garment, the band generally has acceptable expansion qualities and a proper location for eventual positioning at the waist of the wearer. However, sewn waistbands have added to the total cost of the garment due to the additional sewing step that is required during production. Introducing expansion yarn to a specified area of the garment during continuous rotary knitting requires the expansion yarn and the panty yarn to be cut so that a plurality of terminated yarn ends are located within the body of the finished garment and at the waist opening. These terminated yarn ends detract from the appearance of the garment although some at the waist opening may be hidden at an added expense by rolling and sewing. Although waistbands have been disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,748,870 which may be formed by reciprocal knitting to eliminate terminated yarn ends, in both types of integrally knitted waistbands heretofore utilized, the opening has been in the form of a narrow elongated slot with a wale-wise orientation.
This configuration for the waist opening has two obvious drawbacks. First, the larger the waist opening during rotary knitting, the greater will be the extension of the elongated slot into the area of the side panels. Since the wearer requiring a large waist opening will probably have large hips, this extension into the side panels decrease the rise of the garment along the hips to prevent the opening from being properly located at the waist of the wearer. If more knitting courses are added at the hips, there is likely to be a required increase in the number of courses at the crotch area which could effect the overall shape of the garment by giving it a tendency to be baggy at the crotch and the front and rear panels of the body portion.
Secondly, since the expansion of the knitted band, because of its orientation in the prior art panty hose discussed hereinabove, will be limited to the wale-wise direction tending to elongate the knitted loop, its elastic characteristics are limited. Expansion in the course-wise direction of knitting which tends to widen the loop is generally preferred for waistbands because it is capable of more expansion at a greater force.
Generally, it should be noted that, to be attractive economically, any panty hose garment should be made as quickly as possible. It is further recognized that each additional manipulation or step which is required to produce the garment will have a tendency to increase its cost and that the most desirable method of production would accordingly be by continuous knitting of the entire garment including the waistband.